


Interlude

by karusarchive (cluelesskaru)



Series: We Once Were All Here [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Family isn't always a matter of blood., Kid Mako Mori, Sometimes it's something we build., mako & her sensei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-12 01:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3338855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cluelesskaru/pseuds/karusarchive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It feels that suddenly Stacker is not saving the world for the future generations, he is saving it specifically for <b>her</b>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Cry Answered](https://archiveofourown.org/works/934852) by [imperfectcircle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfectcircle/pseuds/imperfectcircle). 



> This work attemps ~~(and dares)~~ to be a sequel, therefore I'm following imperfectcircle's timeline. I just had too many feelings, sorry.

 

 

"Sometimes your world just crumbles around you, and you have to build **something new** from the pieces."

 

 

  **Lima - July 12, 2017 - 03:27**

The new quarters are the largest ones at the Shatterdome. He _is_ the new Marshall and _he does_ _need_ the space now. So the office is large, with windows and plenty room, then there’s a door to the right, which leads to a little kitchenette/living-room area and one bedroom on each side. The space is needed indeed, but still he doesn’t like having more than the others, that’s not how a leader should be, he is no better. He just worries more. And why would he get himself even more worries, is beyond his own understanding. But there he is, standing by 10 year old Mako Mori’s bedroom, looking at her so intently that it is a wonder she doesn’t awake.

Pentecost never thought he would raise a child, and since he brought the girl into to Lima with him, he’s been experiencing the oddest things. Yesterday, during breakfast she said “Thank you very much, Stacker-san.” When he gave her extra bread and then “Eat more cereal” when he motioned to stop eating. Just like that, in bumpy english, that she no doubt practiced many times. She started using  the  _san_ honorific towards him recently, and it is so endearing that he is yet to know how to respond. When Mako beamed as he poured himself more cornflakes, it was as if for a second there was no ground beneath him, like there was no oxygen in his lungs, and it was awful and incredible. There Pentecost was, changing this girl’s life so completely, and she was grateful, she didn’t resent him.

His father tried his best with him, he knew. But it was no good, and at such a tender age, Pentecost felt a rage way beyond his years, he took matters into his hands. The new Marshall knew exactly how Mako must feel, and he would do everything in his power to prevent her from making the same mistake he did. Revenge cuts you as deep as what you do to others.

Mako Mori reminds Stacker Pentecost so much of himself.

She lays under the white sheets, the bed is too big, her pajamas are too small, her hair spilled on the pillow like nankin.

 

 

 

Today she asked him why he was a pilot. Mako knows why she wants to be one, but suddenly she realised that Stacker-san never told her _his reasons_.

" _I'm a_ ranger." He said.

She repeated it, the word tangled in her tongue, and then she didn't try to say it again. But Pentecost knew that next time Mako said the word, it would roll out of her lips flawlessly.

“ _But why?_ ”

Because someone has to, he thinks.

“ _Because I want us to be safe again._ ” Us as in the whole world.

“ _Dōmo arigatōgozaimasu_ ¹.” She bowed and then hugged him so tight and so happily that a surprised laugh escaped him. Pentecost didn’t know how important it was to her that the two of them could save the world together

“ _iie_ ²” He then answers automatically, waving his hand across his face. _It was nothing._

 

 

 

 _It was nothing._ His own answer is still bouncing in his head. _It was nothing._

The new Marshal sighs heavily and turns his back to Mako, taking slow steps towards his own bedroom. It’s three in the morning and it feels like it’s the middle of the day. Sleep has been hard these times, and he won’t accomplish anything staring at the girl. He won’t predict the future by staring at Mako’s serene sleeping face, he won’t know what to do by counting the milliseconds between her breaths, no matter how much he wants to.

It feels that suddenly he is not saving the world for the future generations, he is saving it specifically for **her**.

Just when Pentecost sits on his bed and is stretching himself, to try and lure sleep in, he hears a small whimper. Automatically he’s in complete alert and rushes back to Mako’s side.

She’s dreaming. Her tiny fists clenching and unclenching, the standard white sheets of the Shatterdome now tangled in her legs, it looks like she’s drowning in them. He needs to buy her proper sheets, maybe new pajamas (these one’s are starting to look short), because Mako needs to look like the child she is and not like a disheveled doll.

Pentecost sits by her side, bringing his large hands towards her, it is not that he’s never seen a girl cry, he did have a sister once, but it is how to do this. She’s not his sister, or his mother, or his co-pilot, she’s...

“Mako-chan” He calls softly, gently placing his hand or her shoulder. “ _Sore wa tada no yumeda³_.”

She sits abruptly on the bed, startling awake so much, that she freezes for a moment, eyes wide in horror, not breathing. Carefully, Pentecost squeezes her shoulder, just a little, and it works to bring her back, “Sensei” She breathes out, relief sagging her body.

It is the first time she doesn’t call him Mr. Pentecost (the **r** in miste **r** tangling her tongue), slowly, almost fearfully, she reaches out, climbing into his lap. And Pentecost is holding her, feeling her tiny body cling to his own, hold her is all he can do. And again there’s no world under him, there is no oxygen anywhere, and his heart soars as he touches his chin to the top of her head.

Mako now is all that is good in his life, all that is worth it. Since the moment he saw her running away from Onibaba, just a tiny little thing, holding on to dear life.

Stacker Pentecost is a father now.

 

“Can we have tea?” Mako asks quietly, voice muffled by his chest, and Pentecost clutches her even tighter.

“ _Do  you want to talk about it?_ ” He brushes her hair gently, hoping he can brush the bad dreams away.

“ _Just tea, can we?_ ”

Mako might be a little too big to be carried in Stacker’s arms like that, but he does so anyway. Maybe she should be eating more. Mako’s too light, Stacker’s too big. She clings to him in a vice grip as he carries her throught Lima's Shatterdome, but pulls away just a little bit, to tearily smile at him.

Sensei brushes Mako's hair out of her face, “There’s my brave girl.”

 

 

 

* * *

 "Family isn't  **always** a matter of blood. Sometimes, it's something we build."

 

 

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Mako Mori has several kinds of smiles.

At least that’s what if feels like to Stacker.

And it doesn’t matter to him that they technically live in shared quarters, it’s their home. So if he, as Marshal, can’t allow Mako to paint the walls of her bedroom yellow, then he is as good as damned. Because the smile she smiles when she’s done painting is the rarest smile of them all: pure joy.

 

Sometimes Stacker wonders if he’d raised her to be a warrior or if she’s been one since birth. (He’s just fooling himself, he knows Mako’s kind of inner strength - the same kind of his own - is the kind that can’t be taught.)

 

She goes away to the Jaeger Academy, and he makes sure to train her. But Stacker misses the breakfasts when it was just the two of them. And it’s _hard_ to watch her grow, and he never even suspected letting her go fight would be this hard, even though he (admittedly) did raise her to be a warrior.

He knew what was good for Mako, and safety was what he always wished for her.

But he could only shelter her for so long.

 

There are some things that simply don’t change; Fuyumi still calls at least once a week. Mako still sleeps on the sheets with cartoon bears that Sensei brought her on their third month together. Every morning she insists he eats all his cereal. Every morning they do yoga together, just the two of them. And as more people start joining the training room, they train wrestling and every possible fighting technique there is. She still wants to be the best, to fight off monsters side by side with her sensei.

 

He knows for a fact that Mako raised him much more than he possibly could raise her on his own. (If he were kinder on himself, he’d recognize that they grew together in some ways, but all the control and respect she has in her, is all from him and **for** him.)

 

Stacker knew there would come a day when he would say his goodbyes to her, and his only fear was what if he never had Mako by his side again? Was he selfish enough to always want her by his side?

He was just a little bit.

But Stacker knew better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¹ _"It's just a dream"_ \- I don't speak japanese, so I apoligize for my blunt use of the infamous Google Translate.  
>  ² Literally means _“no”_ , instead of saying _you’re welcome_ , the person says that _“It was nothing.”_.  
>  ³ _“It’s just a dream.”_

**Author's Note:**

> ¹ _"It's just a dream"_ \- I don't speak japanese, so I apoligize for my blunt use of the infamous Google Translate.  
>  ² Literally means _“no”_ , instead of saying _you’re welcome_ , the person says that _“It was nothing.”_.  
>  ³ _“It’s just a dream.”_
> 
> I also took some headcanons from the incredible Reconstruction Site, by disco-vendetta, because I just take incredible fanfiction as canons. ~~Does that make me a fool?~~  
>  And I might've picked up other headcaons from other work, because I've reached a point where I honestly cannot remember which I've read and which I've come up with on my on, that's how strong Mako's picture is in my head, _she just is_.
> 
> And also, the timelines in pacrim are a little confusing. Since this is a prequel to someone else’s work (that I love alot) I put the same age as imperfectcircle. But, according to the novelization. Mako would be 13 when Stacker adopted her. Just to clarify. ~~And according to Travis Beacham, she’d be 15.~~


End file.
